


Wrath Of Minerva

by Captain_Rachel



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-12-10
Updated: 2011-12-10
Packaged: 2017-10-27 04:32:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/291660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Captain_Rachel/pseuds/Captain_Rachel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is an ancient and noble Time Lord tradition that, upon a Time Lord's 4th Regeneration, their House will gift them with a robotic companion... which is usually deactivated and stuck in a closet somewhere.</p><p>The Master has just reached his fourth regeneration.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wrath Of Minerva

Chapter 1 - The “Perks” Of Regeneration

 

While the Master enjoyed his little sparing sessions with the Doctor and his beloved apes, the Master had grown tired of staying in one place and one time. So he had left Sol-3, leaving the Doctor to his life as UNIT’s Scientific Advisor.

 

He’d ended up in the Dagmar Cluster, during the late 51st Century. He’d decided to investigate the temporal storms which were occurring in that section of time and space… unfortunately he had underestimated the storms.

 

He reacted just a second too slow, which resulted in an exceptionally violent temporal storm sweeping over his TARDIS. The turbulence was fierce and the Master was lucky that he wasn’t thrown out the doors (which had been open). By the time the master had managed to pilot his TARDIS out of the storm’s reach he was bleeding from several deep wounds and leaning on the controls.

 

Only the Master’s pride enabled him to remain standing upright as he was consumed by the golden fires of regeneration… as the golden light vanished he looked down at his new hands, clenching them experimentally. He turned to the side, not surprised to see himself reflected in a full length mirror which his clever TARDIS had moved to the control room.

 

It was a good body… young enough for strength, but old enough to demand respect. Unlike his previous forms the Master’s new face was clean shaven. After a second or two of reflection he came to the decision that his face would not be imporved by a beard or a mustache. He had ginger hair, which caused the Master to laugh, as he knew that the Doctor desired the same shade, but had yet to “get” it. The Master’s hair fell to his shoulders and had the slightest bit of a curl. His new eyes were dark green and his skin was lighter then his previous body, but he wasn’t pale.

 

The Master’s TARDIS rearranged itself, presenting the newly regenerated Time Lord with a selection of clothing, each item already tailored to perfectly fit the Master’s new form. The Master smiled as he telepathically thanked his clever ship.

 

The Master’s new body was, in height and build, remarkably similar to his previous one. His old clothing fit, although it was a tad bit tight across the shoulders and a bit lose around the waist… besides, it was a well known fact that each regeneration possessed a different dress sense when compared to the previous one, even if that difference was only slight.

 

The Master pulled off his gloves, tossing them to one side before he running a hand over the clothing that his TARDIS had offered for his inspection. He closed his eye, relying on touch to figure out what his preferred manner of dress would be.

 

 

 

 

Opening his eyes, the Master found himself holding a pair of jeans which were so dark a blue they might as well have been black. Next came a black collared shirt, followed by a knee length black leather duster. After selecting a simple pair of black boots, the Master quickly pulled on his new clothing. He tossed the old outfit on to the clothing rack. As he adjusted his new clothing the Master’s TARDIS rearranged itself so that the clothing rack vanished from the control room, most likely going back into the main closet of the TARDIS. The Master stalked back to the control panel of his TARDIS, deciding that he’d recovered from his regeneration and it was time to find some new planet to explore and perhaps take over… it would be amusing to see the Doctor’s reaction to the Master’s new body.

 

The Master was reaching for the lever that controlled the “handbrake” when he realized that this new body was his fourth… his fourth regeneration. The Master swore violently in a language so ancient that his TARDIS had trouble translating it. After the Master ran out of words to express his anger, he settled for growling.

 

As the Master growled at everyone and no one, a small box appeared on the TARDIS’ counsel. It was a completely unremarkable brown box, made of the Gallifreyan equivalent of cardboard. On top of the box was a plain white envelope with the Master’s childhood name written upon it in Gallifreyan. The Master’s growling seemed to increase as he snatched up the envelope and quickly read the letter he found inside.

 

 _Please accept this simple gift in celebration and recognition of your achievement of four successful regenerations._

 _-The House Of Oakdown_

 

Of course, that was the _extremely_ simplified translation of the letter which the Master held in his hands. The Literal translation would most likely have rivaled  À La Recherche Du Temps Perdu in length. Gallifreyan had a strange tendency to do that when you translated it into any other language… it was probably due to the Gallifreyan tendency to express (with great precision) the time associated with every single word.

 

Thousands of years ago, around the time when Rassillion was ruling, there had been a very wealthy and important Time Lord, whose name had long since been forgotten, who had decided to give their eldest son a robotic companion when that boy reached his fourth regeneration.

 

Unfortunately this gift giving had struck several other important and wealthy Time Lords and Ladies as a rather wonderful tradition. This had trickled down over the years until every “respectable” House on Gallifrey had a tradition of sending out just such a gift. When the Master was a Time-Tot he’d encountered several “robotic companions”. He’d found them incredibly annoying, a feeling which (thankfully) most of the members of the House of Oakdown shared. It was a unofficial tradition in the House of Oakdown to deactivate your robotic companion as soon as possible.

 

The Master ripped up the note and threw the pieces to the floor, only somewhat ashamed at how juvenile his reaction was. He looked down and nodded in satisfaction upon seeing that his TARDIS had destroyed the scraps of paper. The Master poked the box, which instantly opened with a soft hiss of compressed air. Slowly the sides of the box fell apart, revealing the Master’s robotic companion…

 

Which looked like a small white _kitten_!

 

For a second the Master’s brain went dead and he just stood there, staring at the robot. “They sent me a kitten?”

 

The Master pinched himself… hard. He didn’t wake up and was rather annoyed and disgusted that he had resorted to such a _human_ method of insuring that he wasn’t dreaming. And the blasted kitten was still there.

 

“They sent me a kitten!” The Master growled and the robot kitten switched itself on.

 

The little robot somehow managed to resemble a ball of white fluff, despite being made of metal and plastic. The robot was white, from ears to tail, except for it’s eyes, which were an emerald green. It blinked at the Master, before stretching slowly. Once it had stretched out it sat down and started up at the Master.

 

“Meow?”

 

The Master blinked. “ _Meow_? Shouldn’t you be able to speak?!?”

 

“Meow.”

 

The Master growled and turned his back to the kitten, deciding that he was going to ignore the robotic kitten and go to his study. He’d throw himself into a nefarious plot and hopefully the TARDIS would deal with the robotic pest.

 

But before the Master had managed to take two steps the kitten leaped off the TARDIS counsel and landed on the Master’s shoulders.

 

The Master screamed like a female Time-Tot. After taking a second or two to recover, the Master grabbed the little robot kitten and held it out in front of him, subjecting the machine to his infamous “Glare Of Death”.

 

The kitten did not seem to be effected. Instead it decided to lean forward and lick the Master’s nose. This caused the Time Lord to drop the kitten, which easily landed on it’s feet and sat down on the floor, watching as the Master rubbed at his nose.

 

“Infernal machine!” The Master shouted before racing off into the depts of his TARDIS.

 

The kitten stayed behind in the control room, amusing itself with a ball of yarn that the Master’s TARDIS created for it.

 

Throughout the entire interaction between Time Lord and Robot, the TARDIS had remained silent… and it continued to do so until it sensed that his Time Lord had reached his study and was seated at his desk, working on his latest scheme.

 

The TARDIS hummed softly, almost as if it was asking the kitten a question. The little white kitten looked around the room, as if it was making sure that the Time Lord wasn’t there, before it smiled.

 

“I like it here!” The kitten whispered, before going back to playing with the ball of yarn and purring happily.

 

TBC... Possibly


End file.
